On Our Way
by Velvet Del Rey
Summary: 'You say we're gonna run away...Flying around and I'm finally free.' High school AU with a dash of bookstore and coffee shop AU as well. Velvet/Angelina (friendship), Velvet/Miz, Angelina/Alex, Madison/Maryse.


Full summary: _'You say we're gonna run away...Flying around and I'm finally free.'_ Velvet and Angelina are finishing their senior year of high school. Angelina is overwhelmed with all the choices being thrown with her, while Velvet feels like she has no choices at all. One just wants to calm down and live their nice quiet life in Connecticut, while the other wants the complete opposite; she just wants out. High school AU with a dash of bookstore and coffee shop AU as well. Velvet/Angelina (friendship), Velvet/Miz, Angelina/Alex Shelley, Madison/Maryse.

Rating: Mature, for future chapters that will feature violence, sex, or dark themes.

AUTHORS NOTE: I haven't watched wrestling in about a year, that's why I didn't even try to set this in real time. It's a high school AU for a reason. (It's also kind of a coffee shop/bookstore AU, I'm just giving you everything I got with this one.) If personalities are a little off, I'm very sorry. It's an AU and that's my excuse. I also didn't try too hard to match the personalities in this to their real ones. I'm just really, really awful. Velvet's too sarcastic for her own good and Angelina reminds me of a puppy (but a really sassy puppy). I haven't written fanfiction in maybe six months, possibly longer. I had another account which was Little Miss Velvet, I don't know if anyone would remember me I wasn't popular, but yeah. I'm back in the game, folks. Wassup.

Title and summary from Lana Del Rey's '_On Our Way_'.

Any reviews would be so so so appreciated. I'll take compliments, I'll take critiques. Just be nice, I'm a sensitive soul. Heh. Enjoy!

* * *

Velvet wakes up and almost dies. It feels like someone's parked their car on her chest. Not just a tiny little smart car either, but a monster truck. She cannot breathe. She looks down and can see nothing but messy blonde hair. "Angelina!" she croaks. Her best friend doesn't move. Somehow in the middle of the night, Angelina had apparently decided she wanted to cuddle and had ended up right on top of Velvet, her head on her chest, the top of her head nuzzled right against her throat.

"Angelina," Velvet tries again. She hears a tiny little squeak and turns her head. It's hard to see over Angelina's messy hair, but she can see a big ball of orange looking at her. Next to it is a big ball of white. Since Angelina's side of the bed was freed up when she got on top of Velvet, the two cats called dibs on the warm place to lay. She looks around the room and doesn't see the third and final cat, but she can't move her feet and they're suspiciously warmer than the rest of her body. If she could get her friend off of her, she thinks it's safe to assume she'd see another huge ball of fur, this one a dark gray.

Angelina snorts in her sleep and okay. Velvet's done trying to gently wake her, not that she tried very hard to begin with. Using all the strength she has after only being awake for five minutes, she gives Angelina a rough shove, sending her head first off the bed, her legs flying in the air after her. Once she's able to, Velvet rolls over onto her side with her back to Angelina, pulling the blankets up over her shoulders. Rolling over isn't easy with a cat on her feet, but neither of them complain. The cat doesn't move. Velvet lets out a soft, content sigh and closes her eyes again.

"Velvet!" Angelina screams.

"Mhm?" Velvet doesn't turn around.

"What just happened?"

"What do you mean?" She rolls over now and as she sees Angelina sitting on the floor, she raises her eyebrows. "Oh, I don't know. I guess you fell."

Angelina whines and stands up. "Did you push me?"

She's asking, but they both know Angelina knows she was in fact pushed.

"No," Velvet says. "Wasn't me. Biscuit and Finn are laying in your spot though. They look guilty. It was probably them."

"Velvet, you pushed me out of bed!"

Velvet just shrugs. "No, sorry. It wasn't me."

Velvet can tell she's about to be pounced on before Angelina does it. "No!" she squeals, just as Angelina jumps back into bed. The blonde grabs her pillow and hits Velvet with it, repeatedly. The cats aren't happy with the sudden chaos.

The two girls are cackling with laughter, both of them struggling to catch their breath as Angelina continues to flail the pillow around, missing Velvet more than she was actually hitting her. After a minute, Angelina falls down onto her side of the bed, landing on a pile of cats. "I'm sorry, babies," she says, her voice high-pitched and sweet.

"There are too many cats in this bed," Velvet says, watching as Biscuit and Finn move to the end of the bed to join Lewis.

"There can never be too many cats."

"My bed can barely fit us, Ang. It cannot contain us and three cats."

"Fine. The next sleepover is at my house."

"Deal. Okay, what time is it? How early are we up?"

Angelina slips her hand under the blanket and blindly searches for her phone. She'd fallen asleep with it under pillow, but after much tossing and turning, it had slid down further into the bed. She finds it quickly and checks the time. "It's almost six. We have like twenty minutes before we actually need to get up and get ready. But if we get up now, we can stop for coffee before school."

"No money," Velvet says with a slight pout. She swings her legs over the bed and sets her feet on the ground. Using the hair tie around her wrist, she pulls her brown hair into a messy bun on top of her head.

"I can get them for free, don't worry," Angelina says. "The perks of being a coffee slave."

By 'coffee slave', she means barista. She's been making coffee at the small coffee shop in their Connecticut town since their sophomore year. She originally only got the job so she could afford concert tickets for Velvet's birthday, and had planned on quitting once she'd purchased the tickets. The pay was great though and even though the work was boring, it was tolerable, and she'd started to love the people she worked with, so she stayed.

"Awesome," Velvet says. "I wish I got free coffee at my work. I don't get anything free at my work."

"You bring books home from work every week," Angelina says.

"They're not free!"

Angelina snorts. "You complain about never having money. That's where it goes. You spend your paycheck on the product you sell."

Velvet doesn't say anything, just scrunches her face up. She can't argue with her when she's obviously speaking the truth.

"So," Angelina starts. "Coffee or not? We have to get up now."

"We're getting up now!" Velvet decides, standing up. She runs straight towards the bathroom and yells behind her, "Dibs on the first shower!"

* * *

Sleepovers before the first day of school were a tradition with Velvet and Angelina. The first one had been the night before they started the sixth grade. Velvet had been so nervous about starting middle school and going to a new school that she was still awake at midnight the night before, crying on the phone with Angelina about how scared she was. Much to the annoyance of Angelina's mom, Angelina begged to be allowed to sleep over. It was one in the morning when Angelina got there, but with her presence and reassurance, Velvet was finally able to calm down and fall asleep.

Velvet doesn't freak out about starting school anymore, but both of them still find comfort in the tradition. It's always a fun night. They usually spend the day either shopping for last minute school supplies, or freaking out over the summer/winter assignments they'd procrastinated on doing, or just laying in their rooms being lazy. Then they spent the night watching movies, driving around their small town and continuing to be lazy. Waking up with your best friend made it a lot easier to get up, too. Getting out of bed before the sun was up was never an easy thing, but having your best friend there to help wake you up made it almost fun. It also meant having someone to make early morning coffee runs with.

An hour after they'd finished getting ready, the two friends were pulling up in front of _Mocha Jojo's_.

"Can you run in and get them real quick?" Velvet asks. "I'm cold and don't want to get out of the car."

She's pouting, which doesn't work on Angelina. She's a good friend though, and she doesn't need Velvet to help her carry two cups anyway. It's not necessary for her to get out. She'd only whine more about the cold if Angelina insisted she did come inside with her.

"You want your usual?" she asks.

Velvet smiles a big, bright smile and nods. "Thanks, buddy."

Angelina gets out of the car and walks up to the coffee shop. Through the glass door, she can see Alex and she swears her heart flutters. If there were little love hearts floating above her head right now, she wouldn't be surprised. Alex was gorgeous.

She opens the door and the second she steps inside, Alex looks away from the customer he's talking to her and smiles at her. He gives her a nod in greeting before turning his attention back to the customer. The customer's a girl, a young one. She has blonde hair down to her butt, her hair almost longer than the dress she's in. It's a cute dress, blue and sparkly, but she's not wearing any tights or leggings underneath it and it has thin straps. Angelina has an urge to take her own huge sweatshirt off and put it on her. The girl must be freezing.

As Angelina approaches the two of them, she catches the end of their conversation.

"Thank you, honey," the girl says when Alex hands her a large to go cup. She wraps a hand around it, showing off her manicured nails, and raises it to her red lips. She takes a slow drink, letting out a quiet moan as she swallowed. "Mmmm. So yummy and sweet. Almost as sweet as you."

Angelina almost gags, but judging by the smirk on Alex's face, she's the only one disgusted by this girl.

"Have a nice day," he says, his voice low and husky. "Please come again."

She giggles. "I will."

When she turns around to leave, she passes Angelina and gives her a wide, sweet smile. The smile looks almost too nice. Angelina suspects it's fake.

Angelina stares at Alex in silence until she hears the door shut behind her and is certain the girl is gone. "That was horrifying."

Alex barks out a laugh. "She was so hot. Have you ever seen her in here before? I definitely never have. I would have remembered."

"No, never seen her," Angelina mumbles. She has no interest in this conversation, and Alex must pick up on that because he drops the subject then.

Being friends with Alex was great. He was a genuinely good friend, always making Angelina laugh and keeping her company at work. The one and only negative? When he talked about girls. Which was often. This wasn't a problem for Alex's other friends, who eagerly talked about all the girls he hooked up with. But it was a little different for Angelina, who'd liked him since they met three years ago.

He was already working at Mocha Jojo's when Angelina applied for a job. At the time, he was still in high school. They went to the same school, but they'd never met before because he was two years older. For the first few months after they met and went to school together, they spent a lot of time together there. After he graduated, they still spent a lot of time together away from work. At first they only hung out with other people, either people from work or Velvet and Madison. After about a year though, they began hanging out one on one more. Now they hang out together at least once a week. Each day they spend together, Angelina finds herself becoming more and more smitten with him.

"What are you doing here, Ang?" Alex asks. "You're not working today, are you?"

"No," she says, leaning against the counter. "I have school in a little bit."

"Ah, school," he sighs dreamily. "I remember the days of school."

"Do you miss Newfield, Alex?"

He shakes his head. "No, no, definitely not. Graduation day was the best day of my life. I couldn't wait to get out of that place."

"You sound like Velvet."

"She's desperate to get out, too?"

"Oh yeah. She keeps saying she wants to drop out now, but we only have a few months left. I'm forcing her to keep going."

Out of the two girls, Angelina has always been more focused when it comes to education and a career. She has more of a solid idea of what she wants to do after school, while Velvet is just trying to make it through one day at a time. They're very different when it comes to school. Angelina's always been the type to eagerly do extra credit, to include extra information in her presentations, write an extra page of her essay. Then there's Velvet, who does the bare minimum, sometimes less. It's never surprising when she shows up to class without her homework finished, or she's asking for an extra day to finish her project. Lucky for her, she has a best friend who's always looking out for her, and will let her quickly copy down her answers before class.

The few months they spent together at school, Angelina saw that Alex was the same way. She didn't know what it was, but she was apparently drawn to slackers.

"What are you doing here?" he asks again. "Shouldn't you be getting to school?"

She puts on her sweetest smile. "I was hoping I could get some coffee?"

He looks like he's thinking about it, but Angelina knows what he'll say. He always says yes.

"Your holiday favorite?"

"Plus a vanilla spice latte, for Vel."

"Coming right up."

Angelina watches him as he makes their drinks. He's moving quickly, as quick as he can without ruining the drinks, and Angelina appreciates that. He knows she hates being late for anything, school and work especially.

"Large vanilla spice latte for miss Velvet," he says as he sits the drinks on the counter in front of Angelina. "And a pumpkin spice for you. I put a little something special in there for you."

She picks it up and takes a cautious sip. It tastes exactly the same. "What?"

"Just a little love," he says and he's grinning like he thinks he's hilarious.

Angelina laughs, picking up the drinks and backing up towards the door. "You're an idiot," she says. "I'll see you after school?"

"I'm here 'till five," he says. He raises his hand in a wave. "Bye, Ang."

She smiles at him again before leaving the shop and getting back into her car. Velvet eagerly takes her drink from her and takes a gulp. "Fuck, shit, that's hot."

"I don't know what you were expecting," Angelina says, shaking her head at her friend. She takes another drink of her coffee. Hm. Maybe it does taste a little better than usual.

* * *

They have five minutes to get to class when they pull into the parking lot. Lucky for them, their first period class is less than a minute walk from the front door and they don't need to make a stop at their lockers first. So they have another minute to soak up as much heat in the car as they can.

"I hate school," Velvet whines. "And it's so cold!"

Velvet holds her coffee cup tighter, hoping the warmth from it will seep into her bones and warm her completely.

"If you don't stop complaining about the cold, I'm going to hit you," Angelina warns. "It's January, of course it's cold. Everyone's cold."

"Mean."

Velvet's pouting again. She's always pouty before school. School and cold make for a very pouty Velvet. Angelina understands. Even though she enjoys school, she knows it's not the same for everyone. It's certainly not the same for Velvet, who has to be practically dragged out of bed every morning. It takes a lot to wake Angelina up, as demonstrated that very morning when Velvet pushed her out of bed, but once she's awake, she's up and ready to go. She's always in a positive mood, which annoys Velvet most of the time. That's only because Velvet tends to be more negative, which annoys Angelina. They annoy each other daily, but they love each other more than they annoy each other. Which means they must love each other a lot.

"We have exactly four minutes until the bell rings," Angelina says, looking at her phone one last time before putting it in her purse. "Madison's probably already waiting for us. We should go."

With one last quiet whine, Velvet nods and they open their doors. They grab their backpacks, purses and coffees and head inside.

Newfield High wasn't the biggest high school in the world. It wasn't a small school by any means, but somehow everyone managed to know who everyone was. They didn't all know each other personally, a lot of them had never spoken to one another. But due to sports and clubs and mutual friends and the same classes, everyone knew of each other. Which is why when Velvet and Angelina walk into their first period English class and Velvet asks, "Who's that?", Angelina knows they must have a new student.

When she looks over to where Velvet's looking, she's surprised to see the same girl from the coffee shop this morning sitting in the back of the class. Her dress still just as skimpy, her hair just as long, a large to go cup of coffee in front of her. As they walk towards their own seats and get closer to her, Angelina can see where her lipstick has come off on the lid.

"New girl, I guess," Angelina says with a shrug. They approach their usual seats, where Madison is already seated. She doesn't notice them as they walk up, her eyes glued to the new girl.

They stop in front of her desk and Angelina clears her throat, but she's still staring. Velvet gives a hard kick to the leg of Madison's desk.

"What the hell!" Madison shouts. Once she looks up and sees it's them, she lets out an annoyed sigh. "Where the fuck have you two been?"

Madison's their other best friend, a girl who they haven't known as long as they've known each other, but have gotten very close with. They met their freshman year of high school when they had gym class together. They all "accidentally" forgot to bring appropriate shoes the day they were meant to run laps (Angelina actually did forget her shoes, Velvet and Madison left them at home on purpose) and spent the hour sitting on the bleachers together.

For the first month of their friendship, Angelina was convinced Madison hated her. She was a lot like Velvet, in that she was sarcastic and could be kind of negative. With Velvet, Angelina knew she was kidding when she was teasing her or saying sarcastic things, because they'd known each other so long. It took awhile for Angelina to realize Madison did like her, but since then, the three girls have been a tight trio.

"I've been sitting here for twenty minutes," Madison continues. "All by myself. I was bored and lonely and I'm very tired. And then." She hesitates, but keeps going right away as if she was hoping no one would notice. "Everyone started coming in and you know how much I hate everyone." She glances towards the new girl again, but only briefly. She starts talking again like she hadn't stopped. "Why were you so late today? You two are always early on mornings after a sleepover, Angelina makes sure of it. Was this sleepover a bust or something?"

"Well actually, we started the morning off with a near death experience," Velvet says.

"Yeah, Velvet pushed me off the bed and I almost broke my neck."

"I was talking about me! I couldn't breathe. You were crushing my lungs."

Madison is shaking her head at them.

"You almost broke my neck!" Angelina shouts.

"I apologized for that!"

"It still happened."

"I don't care," Madison says, finally interrupting them or else they'd go on for hours. "I really do not care."

"You're such an ass," Velvet mumbles before walking past her and sliding into the desk behind her.

In Madison's defense, she's been putting up with Velvet and Angelina's antics for a few years. She only has so much patience now.

"I'm the ass? Angelina just said you pushed her off the bed."

"I'm not discussing this anymore!"

Angelina sits at her desk in the last row, right next to Velvet and diagonal from Madison. Both girls begin getting themselves situated, setting down their bags and pulling out their books for this class, and making sure they have room for their coffee cups on their desks.

Their teacher, Mr. B. (short for Mr. Beckham) walks in. He's a tall, scary looking man. Standing at almost six feet three inches tall, he's easily the most intimidating teacher at Newfield. Or at least, he should be. But he's always wearing a smile, always laughing and telling jokes, and instead of being the token mean, scary teacher, he's the nice one. He isn't as strict as other teachers either. He doesn't let anyone goof off too much, but because he lets everyone have fun once in awhile, the class typically behaves for him. He has a way of making learning fun.

Velvet and Angelina, and everyone else in their class, feel lucky to have him as their first period teacher. He's always easy on them because he knows how tough mornings are. Velvet really appreciates that.

"Roll call!" he announces. There's a clipboard in his hands as he stands at the front of the room. He clears his throat before he begins making his way down the list. He goes through, naming everyone in the class, names that Velvet and Angelina are familiar with, until he gets to one that they aren't.

"Maryse Ouellet."

A manicured hand goes in the air. "Here."

The new girl, the girl from the coffee shop, now has a name. Maryse. It's a beautiful name, of course. It's fitting for her.

"Maryse," Mr. B. repeats. He smiles. "Our new student. Welcome!"

"Thank you," she says, and Angelina notices she has an accent, a thick one. She just can't place it right away.

"Where are you from, Maryse?" Mr. B. asks. "You have an accent. Is that... French?"

"Yes," she says. "I'm originally from Montreal. Though I've moved here from New York. I have lived in America since I was fifteen."

All eyes are on her, Angelina notices, but no one is watching her quite as intensely as Madison is. Madison looks fascinated by Maryse. Angelina can't blame her. A hot, sophisticated French girl in class? She was the definition of fascinating.

Maryse and Mr. B. chat a little more about her background, and everyone focuses on them (well, on Maryse). After a few minutes, he continues down the list.

"Madison Rayne."

"Here."

"Jamie Szantyr."

"Velvet," she calls out in reply. "I still go by Velvet, Mr. B."

No one has called Velvet by her first name since she can remember. Angelina gave the nickname to her in the first grade, when they met. A week before Velvet started first grade, her mom took her shopping for back to school clothes. At the store, she'd found a beautiful blue velvet dress that she insisted on having. (Looking back at pictures, Velvet now thinks that the dress was hideous and can't believe no one told her that.) It was a thick, long sleeved dress that would only make the summer heat even less tolerable. When Velvet's mom tried to tell her this, Velvet started to cry. She was in love with the dress and thought she'd die if she didn't get it. Her mom gave in and for her first week as a first grader, Velvet wore that dress every single day.

The air conditioning in the classroom made sure she didn't sweat in the warm dress, but once they went out for recess, it was game over for Velvet. The first day, she sat on a bench, miserable and all by herself, thinking she was going to drown in her sweat. The second day, she decided to stay in the classroom for recess. Apparently there was one boy in their class named Bobby who was allergic to the grass or something, and because he didn't want to (or couldn't) go outside, one of the first grade teachers always stayed inside to watch over the kids who chose not to go outside for recess. Most everyone went outside, because what little kid could resist a swing set? But for the rest of that week, Velvet stayed inside with Bobby.

On the fourth day inside at recess, Bobby wasn't there. He'd left after lunch for a dentist appointment, which meant Velvet would be alone during recess. Not that she and Bobby ever talked. He sat at his desk, playing with a puzzle or blocks or something, and she stayed at her desk, usually coloring. But she'd still be alone, and she didn't like that.

Except she wasn't alone, because that day when everyone left for recess outside, one other girl stayed at her seat. She was a hyper little blonde girl who Velvet remembered seeing swinging on the first day outside. She'd looked like she'd been having a lot of fun, and Velvet didn't know why she'd choose to stay inside. Once everyone else had ran outside, the little girl walked over to Velvet, who was opening up her Hello Kitty coloring book to a fresh page.

Velvet eyed her suspiciously. "What?" she asked.

The girl shrugged.

"Why aren't you outside with everyone else? Don't you like the swings?"

The girl nodded. "I love the swings."

"So why aren't you outside?"

"Because Bobby's not here and you'd be alone."

Velvet decided she liked this girl right then and there.

"That's nice. Do you want to color?"

The girl nodded eagerly and smiled, sitting down next to her. Velvet ripped a page out of her book and placed it in front of her new friend.

"We can share my crayons," Velvet said. "My mommy bought me the 64 pack. So there's enough for us both."

"Wow, thanks."

They colored in silence for a minute before Velvet said, "What's your name?"

"I'm Angelina," the girl, Angelina, said.

"I'm Jamie."

"I really like your dress," Angelina said, reaching a hand out to touch Velvet's arm. As first graders, they had no boundaries.

"Thank you! I'm never going to take it off." (Her mom made her stop wearing it after that week which was fine with Velvet because she'd found a pair of pink shorts she liked better.)

"It's so soft."

Proudly, Velvet said, "It's velvet."

"That's a pretty word. Velvet."

"Velvet," Velvet repeated.

"Velvet," Angelina nodded.

"It is a pretty word. It's pretty like your name. Angelina. That sounds like a princess name. Jamie's just a boring name. And there's another boy with the name Jamie who sits over there," she pointed to a table just a couple tables over. "I hate having a boy name."

"I think Jamie's pretty," Angelina said.

"I wish my name was Velvet. I love Velvet."

"I'll call you Velvet from now on if you want me to."

Velvet's face lit up. "Okay!"

"Okay, Velvet," Angelina giggled.

After a few weeks of Angelina calling her that, it caught on with others. Velvet introduced herself as Velvet and started telling teachers to call her Velvet and eventually her own mom warmed up to the nickname. She hasn't been Jamie in years.

"Right, Velvet," Mr. B says now, making the correction on the attendance list. "New list this semester. Sorry, dear."

"It's okay," she says. She's used to having to remind teachers that she didn't go by Jamie. It was annoying, but she's used to it now.

He continues with the roll call.

"And last but not least, Angelina Williams."

"Here."

Mr. B. sets his clipboard down on his desk and sets his attention on Angelina. "Angelina, I hope you don't mind me saying this in front of the entire class, but I heard you were accepted to NYU."

Velvet whistles loudly while most of the class starts clapping. Angelina blushes. Velvet notices and laughs, reaching over to pinch her cheek.

Over Christmas break, most everyone had heard back from the colleges they'd applied to. Angelina had applied early to almost every university she could get applications for, and was accepted to a large variety of them. NYU wasn't even the best school she'd been accepted to, but she didn't want to say that out loud. She'd hate to sound like she was bragging.

"Yep," she simply says.

"Congratulations!" he says, his smile widening. He looks around the room. "Anyone else get accepted to the school of their dreams?" (Not that NYU was the school of Angelina's dreams, Mr. B. was just trying to get a conversation going.)

Kids start shouting out all the colleges they'd been accepted to. They all seem so proud of themselves, whether they'd been accepted to the local community college or to Yale. Angelina knows how excited they all are, she understands it. She cried each time she opened an acceptance letter.

"I got into University of Connecticut," Madison says, turning around in her seat so she could talk to Velvet and Angelina. Madison wasn't a share-it-with-the-whole-class kind of person. "It's not as big of a deal as other schools, but I'm happy."

"That's so great," Angelina says. "That's where you wanted to go, right?"

Madison smiles and nods.

"Congratulations, Mads," Velvet says.

"I don't even remember where you said you were applying to," Madison says to Velvet. "Where'd you get accepted?"

"Um." Velvet shares an awkward glance with Angelina, not knowing what to say.

She'd only applied to one school, because Angelina had insisted she fill out at least one application. As a joke, she'd applied to Yale. She hadn't been accepted. It in't that Velvet isn't smart. She is, she's just lazy. She gets decent grades, meaning she's not failing any classes, but her grades are nowhere near Yale standards. She'd known that when she applied, which is exactly why she'd chosen Yale as her one school. She doesn't want to go to college.

Velvet doesn't want much out of life. There are only two things she cares about: happiness and freedom. At the moment, she has neither. She isn't exactly unhappy. Her friends are amazing, she likes her cozy book store job well enough, and school was whatever. But this isn't the life she wants. She doesn't know what she wants, honestly, but she knows it isn't this. School is the only thing keeping her from running away and trying to find herself.

"Oh, didn't you hear? I was accepted everywhere." When things got to awkward or serious for Velvet's liking, she turned to sarcasm and jokes. "Yale, Harvard, Princeton. Literally everywhere. I applied to every school that exists, every university in every state and every community college in every city. They're all fighting over me. I have my choice. I have so much power."

Madison rolls her eyes and turns back around in her seat, not amused with her sarcastic answer to a simple question. Velvet looks back over at Angelina, who is giggling at her. At least Angelina appreciates her humor.

* * *

After school, Angelina leaves for work right away. The second the bell rings, she's out the door to try and get to _Mocha Jojo's_ before four when her shift starts. On her way out the door, she passes by Velvet's locker and barely even stops to say goodbye.

"Sorry I can't give you a ride home," she says, her words running together as she speaks quickly. "But I'll pick you up in the morning, okay, bye, love you!"

"Love you, too! Have fun at work!" Velvet shouts after her as Angelina power walks down the hall.

Since she's waiting for Madison to talk to a teacher about something so Madison can give her a ride home, she takes her time at her locker. Madison likes to talk and she likes to argue, so Velvet's positive that she'll be waiting for awhile. She makes sure she has the right books for her homework, and leaves whatever she doesn't need in her locker. That only takes a minute though, so she starts re-organizing her locker. She lines her books up in order of periods she needs them. English books first, then Chemistry, then -

"Velvet."

At the sound of her name, she turns her head in the direction it came from. Walking up to her locker, the owner of the voice, is Mike Mizanin. For some reason, Velvet gets nervous around Mike. They've known each other since middle school, where they had practically every class together. They're not best friends and they never have been, but they're friendly with each other. Her nerves are probably from a mix of how good looking he is, and the fact that the way he lives his life terrifies her.

Even before high school, Mike was a rebellious kid. Everyone knew that he was constantly being grounded because he was caught sneaking out or caught at parties with older kids. Not that that was the worst stuff he did. Partying and sneaking out were things a lot of teenagers did. But he liked to take risks. Climbing onto high rooftops, walking the edges while drinking a beer. Taking random trips out of Connecticut, usually hitch hiking and spending his nights on the couches of strangers.

There was a week last semester when he was missing. Not one kid knew where he was. It turned out that he'd run away to New York City to stay with a buddy of his, and he'd gone without telling anyone. His parents didn't even know until he called them from his friend's house. Because he'd already turned eighteen, they couldn't do much other than yell at him and demand he come home. He ignored them, but was in a massive amount of trouble when he got back.

He does a lot of stupid, dangerous things. He's a nice guy, but he's such a bad boy, Velvet can't help but feel nervous around him.

"Michael."

He narrows his eyes at her. "Jamie."

Mike hates being called Michael almost as much as Velvet hates being called Jamie. She giggles and corrects herself. "Mike."

He smiles again and leans against the locker next to hers. "So my friend, John, you know John, right?"

"Morrison? Yeah."

"His birthday's today, and we're throwing a party for him tonight. A couple of guys and me found this abandoned house over break. It's not a complete disaster or anything, so I don't know why people aren't living in it, but apparently no one's lived there for years and no one knows what to do with it. Anyway, we're having a party there tonight. You should come."

This wasn't the first time Mike had invited Velvet to a party or to something that sounded equally or more dangerous. He'd once asked her how she felt about real Mexican food and if she was interested in going to try some; assuming he hadn't meant going to the Taco Bell down the street and instead meant actually going to Mexico, she'd said no. Maybe it was her constantly rejecting him that stopped them from becoming closer friends.

"Sorry, but I can't," she says. "I have plans."

She's not technically lying. Madison had mentioned wanting to go see the new Paranormal Activity movie, and Velvet had been considering going with her. She did kind of have plans... sort of.

"Boo." Mike sticks out his bottom lip into a pout. Damn him for being cute. "You sure you can't come? It'd be a much better party with you there."

"I'm sure," she says. "Thanks though."

Over Mike's shoulder, she can see Madison walking towards them. She slings her backpack over her shoulders and shuts her locker.

"Alright," Mike says, standing up straight. "I'll text you the address if you change your mind though." Madison reaches them as he says this. He looks at her before looking back at Velvet. "You can bring your friends if you want."

Velvet just nods and smiles at him. "Thanks, Mike. I'll see you later."

Madison waits until Mike has walked down the hall and turned the corner before asking, "What did he want?"

They start walking down the hall together towards the front doors of the building. "Oh, John Morrison's birthday is a today and they're throwing a party for him. I was - we were invited."

"Why'd you say no? I would have loved to party!"

"Madison, you had two and a half weeks to party. Besides, tonight's a school night. Don't be an idiot. You don't want to be hungover during school."

Madison groans in response. "Fine, mom. I won't go party. But I'm still going to the movies and I'm getting an extra large thing of popcorn with loads of butter."

"As long as you get a diet coke to go with it."

"Because that'll balance it out."

"Do as mommy says, dear."

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

"I've been telling you for years, he likes you."

"No, he does not!"

That night, right at eight o'clock when she got off of work, Angelina had called Velvet. She was just getting in the car when she pulled her phone out and dialed Velvet's number. After spending a few minutes telling Velvet about all the cute things Alex had done that day, it was Velvet's turn to tell her about Mike's party invite. Angelina's first reaction? To say that Mike liked Velvet. To her, it was so obvious. He's always inviting her to do things, flirting with her in the halls and in class. Velvet claims they aren't even that good of friends, but Angelina knows that Mike wishes they were even more than friends.

"He never invites me to parties. Or for romantic feasts in Mexico," Angelina argues.

Velvet sighs, crossing her legs underneath her on her bed. Lewis jumps up onto the bed with her and rubs the top of his head against her knee, purring loudly. "He invites you. Not directly, but he always says I can bring my friends."

"Oh come on. Just admit that he likes you. I'm not even forcing you to admit you like him, even though i know you do. I just want you to agree he likes you."

"I'm hanging up on you now."

Lewis pushes at Velvet's hand with her nose, demanding to be pet. Velvet gives in.

On the other side of the phone, Angelina laughs. "You're only hanging up because you know I'm right and can't admit it."

"I'll see you in school tomorrow, bye."

"I love you!"

"I don't love you back," Velvet says, stubborn, but then quickly adds, "Love you, too, bye," before hanging up.

* * *

Going to the movies alone wasn't something Madison did often. She usually had Velvet and/or Angelina with her, or another friend of hers, or sometimes her mom who she had a good relationship with. Tonight though, Velvet had wanted to stay home, so Madison was on her own. She didn't really mind. Being by herself meant she could eat the large popcorn by herself and not feel judged, or have to share. Sometimes being alone was nice.

She bought her ticket, the popcorn, a drink, and a box of cookie dough bites. The guy checks her ticket and sends her on her way toward theater seven. She's halfway there when she sees her. Maryse.

Maryse is standing outside of a theater, her arms crossed over her chest. She looks annoyed, but beautiful. She's right across from the theater Madison needs to get into, but Madison knows she can't get there without being seen by her. Her feet feel like they've been glued to the floor, because she can't move forward.

A guy walks out of the theater carrying a purse. She recognizes him from school. Ted, she thinks his name is. From where she's standing, she can hear a little of their conversation.

"Found it," he says. "It was in between our seats."

Maryse takes the bag from him, smiling brightly. "Thank you," she says before leaning in to give him a kiss on the lips. Madison feels sick to her stomach.

Ted and Maryse turn then, and start walking toward her. Before she can even think to turn around, Maryse sees her. Neither of them say anything as Maryse walks past her, their arms brushing, but they don't break eye contact.

It takes a minute for Madison to gather her senses again. Once she can move again, she tosses her food into the nearest trash can and turns back around, heading for the exit.

At school, Madison had been able to do nothing but look at Maryse. She'd stared at her all of first period and she'd seen her in the halls multiple times. When she wasn't looking at her, she was thinking about her. Maryse never looked back though. At first, Madison thought that maybe she was just pretending not to notice her, but she knows Maryse. She knows she can get stuck on herself sometimes and not pay attention to anything or anyone around her. Even when Madison's name had been called during roll call, Maryse was probably done paying attention. Once she'd heard her own name, it was likely she'd dazed out.

The shock on her face just now made it clear to Madison that she hadn't seen her, that she had no idea she was there; that this was the first time in a year that they'd locked eyes with each other. The entire drive home, Madison tries to find a word to describe the look in Maryse's eyes. Anger? Sadness? The word that seems the most accurate to Madison; guilt.


End file.
